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| Member Cruise Review |
One word to sum up this ship and itinerary - FANTASTIC!! The ship is really beautiful - lots of glass everywhere so it's very bright and attractive. The indoor solarium is so pretty, done in an south east Asian decor - like Thai or Indonesian. And with a retractable glass roof so was good for sunbathing in the padded loungers. Food was incredible and believe me, I'm quite a fussy eater. The Windjammer buffet was the best buffet restaurant I've ever been to. My sister loved the stirfry station where you take a bowl and fill it with your own strips of meat or fish, then fill another bowl with your selection of vegetables and seasoning, and then hand to the grill chef for him to cook. Breakfast here was also wonderful. After coming back to the ship in the late afternoon, I loved going in and getting a huge sandwich, freshly made with my choice of fillings. My husband would pop up to the Seaview cafe which provided Diner type food. He especially liked the Cuban sandwich, or the fish and chips. We had a cabin on deck 7 with a balcony. It was well worth the little extra money. Sometimes late in the evening after retiring back to the cabin, we'd use the TV to order some room service. Coffee, beer, a burger, cheesecake or cheese and biscuits (not all of them!). Each morning we had an early room service breakfast of juice, coffee and pastries delivered at 7.30am. A one dollar tip is sufficient for this. As they ring 5 minutes before bringing it, the call acts as your alarm wake up! We always wedged the dollar in the corner of the mirror as we went to bed so we didn't have to hunt for one first thing in the morning. We'd eat on the balcony with lovely views of whichever island we'd arrived at. Then we'd go up to the Windjammer for our 'real' proper big breakie!! No wonder I put on 6lb in one week! All facilities on the ship were outstanding and the staff are the nicest people I've ever met on a holiday. We also prepaid our tips before we went so we didn't have to worry about them. The itinerary was suberb too. We flew from Manchester to San Juan (Puerto Rico) via Atlanta. We stayed overnight at the Radisson in SJ. Great room - very large with separate sitting room, and with a bed with an adjustable air filled mattress that you had a control for which altered the firmness on both sides. My husband wanted me to find out where to get one but sadly we discovered that they're nearly £3000 each! Saturday From Puerto Rico the next morning we boarded the ship. We intended to get off again after something to eat and go and explore Old San Juan, but we began exploring the ship instead and didn't bother. Everywhere we went we were saying, 'Ooh, Aah, Gosh, look at this!' We set sail at 11pm. Sunday saw us arrive at St Thomas. We took RCCLs Ultimate Island Tour. Well worth the money. We travelled all around the island in open sided buses. There was time for shopping, sightseeing and a 2 hour beach stop. I think it only cost £22 each. Monday was St Maarten. We'd prebooked Joyce Prince ($45 each). She took the 4 of us all over the island with stops for shopping, sightseeing, photo opportunities, and her knowledge of the island is extensive and interesting to listen to. She even took us to Maho beach to see the planes land virtually on top of you! Tuesday saw us arrive at Antigua. A beautiful island. We got off the ship after breakfast and paid a taxi driver $60 to take us to Millers Bay beach for 3 hours, then collect us and take us on island tour for about 1 and a half hours. A lovely chap who again told us some interesting things about Antigua. We got back to the harbour at 3.30pm so did a little souvenir shopping. Wednesday St Lucia . We'd prebooked Cosol Tours for this island. We paid for a private tour for the 4 of us. It was $240 for 7 hours. A brilliant day! There were many stops for sightseeing, photo opportunities and for food tasting. Although we didn't actually have a meal during the whole day, we were full from all the tastings of bananas picked from the tree, hot bread, cheese, johnny cakes, bread fruit, chicken, and other things I can't remember now. We also had a stop at Jalousie beach for some sunbathing, swimming or snorkelling. A beautiful island and a wonderful tour - if you are going to St Lucia definitely book a Cosol tour. It's $40 or $45 dollars each or $270 for your own private tour bus. Thursday saw us in Barbados. Again we paid a taxi driver to take us on an island tour for an hour or so, then on to a beach. We originally went to Tamarind but weren't allowed on as it was full, so went on to Blue Monkey beach. That too was very crowded and not very nice unless you walked almost half a mile to the right to around the bend. There were no sunbeds left but one couple we spoke too said they were very expensive and didn't get a brolly for shade. We couldn't walk far along the beach as my sister has a walking disability, so we got back into the taxi and he took us to Carlisle beach which is a 10-15 minute walk from Bridgetown. We told him we'd make our own way back to the ship from there. It was great. Only about 10 people there. There were loungers and brollies - not the best quality but it didn't matter. There was a little beach bar there and the barman came over and we asked him how much for 4 beds and 2 brollies. 'Are you buying anything to drink? Even just water?' he asked. We said, 'Yes, we definitely want some cold bottles of water.' 'No worries then people. Your beds are free!' He high fived all of us and brought us 4 big bottles of water for a very small price. He also said to let him know when we wanted a taxi. You can't ask for more than that! The water was crystal clear and very calm too. We'd told our taxi driver to take us to Tamarind and Blue Monkey as they were recommended to us by a woman who was in charge of directing people to taxis at the port. The driver said that there are paybacks to taxi drivers and port staff by the big hotel complexes to send people to their hotels and beaches and that's why they were so crowded, so remember that if you're going to Barbados! Friday was an at-sea day, so we sunbathed on deck until about 2pm. It was fine getting a sunbed up to about 10.15am then they were all gone. But people have no qualms about removing the belongings of chair hogs who put their towels and bags on the beds early in the morning and then don't come back for at least 2 hours. We saw a couple of arguments when people returned but other people just pointed the signs which say that beds must not be reserved. One American told us that 10 beds right by the pool were reserved by 7.30am and where still empty by 9.30am. Then two families of 4 (travelling together), gathered up all of the towels and bags and left them in a pile in a corner. The family group who'd originally hogged the beds came back at 9.45am and started creating about their stuff being moved. The families who'd taken the beds pointed out that they'd been reserved for over 2 hours and it wasn't allowed. It started getting heated and other cruisers joined in to back up the families who'd taken the beds! We were so unnerved by this that we took it in turns to go for lunch for no more than 30 minutes - we didn't want to leave all 4 beds unattended! Saturday saw us back in San Juan. Sadly we didn't have time to see much of Puerto Rico as our flight back to Atlanta was at 2.30pm so we had to go to the airport by lunchtime. Our flight from Atlanta to Manchester was overbooked so we volunteered to stay overnight in a hotel (all expenses paid) and then fly back to Manchester the following evening in Business class. We had a nice day in Atlanta and a wonderful flight with champagne all the way! One thing bemused us! The Americans rave about a game aboard ship called Quest. On the night it's played the lounge was packed out and the Americans were all so hyped up. We couldn't wait to see what it was all about. It turned out to be the game you see played at every Spanish holiday resort the British have gone too over the past 30 years - a group of men are on stage and are told to go and find a woman's bra, or a pair of knickers etc. Why the Americans think this so fantastic was beyond us! So, a fantastic RCCL cruise on a fantastic ship with a fantastic itinerary! |
Royal Caribbean International Serenade of the Seas February 2007 by mimlloyd San Juan, Puerto Rico - St. Thomas - St. Maarten - Antigua - St. Lucia - Barbados |
| Cabin: Deck 7 Balcony |